Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,91

I faced—in Raollet’s shop. They had power like . . .” She looked up at Eva, not sure how to go on, but she needed to say it. “Like you.”

Eva nodded slowly, remaining silent.

“I don’t really know what to make of him, other than the fact that he has considerable power, and I struggled to stop him.”

“He came here?”

“He did. He attacked Char. I tried to help him by drawing off the smoke.” She shook her head. “And he attacked other sorcerers too.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I don’t really know.”

It didn’t fit with the stories Raollet had shared with her about the Ashara. They were supposedly natural enemies to the El’aras, but not to the Society—unless the Society had done something to them, or to this one particular Ashara.

Jayna didn’t know, and that still didn’t explain the reason behind the enchantments either.

There had to be something more to it.

“Let’s get moving. I don’t want to be here when the sorcerers return,” Jayna said.

“You should know that something has changed in the time you’ve been gone.”

“How long have I been gone?”

“The better part of two days,” Eva said.

Could it really have been that long?

From the rumbling of her stomach, she realized it might’ve been. She had been trapped, fading in and out, then waking, frustration filling her. Two days without any food or drink. Two days that the sorcerers had abandoned her.

Two days that they had waited for her to die.

Agnew wasn’t going to come back for me.

He thought she was dular, but even then, could he really have been willing to let her just languish there? Could he have been willing to let her die?

She needed to talk to Char.

“What’s been going on?”

They started along the hallway, and Jayna paused, looking into each of the rooms, but they were empty. The sense of Char was still distant and faded, but near enough now that she wondered if he might still be here.

“The sorcerers have begun their attack.”

Jayna spun, looking at her. “They’ve done what?”

Eva nodded slowly. “They have begun their attack on the dular.”

21

It was later than she’d expected, darkness having fallen by the time they stepped out of the outpost. The street outside was quiet, though it was almost an eerie sort of quiet, a calm that she didn’t know whether or not to believe. There was a strange sort of energy to it, suggesting that what she detected was not real. Distantly, she could feel the same sort of heaviness she had felt before, the thudding deep within her, and she realized why.

Char was trying to get her attention.

He wasn’t too far from her.

“Char is trying to call me,” she said. “He knows this is wrong. He’s trying to intervene, but he’s not able to.”

“He’s a part of this. I’ve seen him with them.”

Jayna closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly, and she wondered if that was really the case. From what she could tell and feel, Char did not want to attack the dular.

“We need to find him.”

“No, we need to get moving.”

Eva grabbed her arm and smoke trailed around her hand, drifting up and along Jayna’s arm, pressing down into her as if to constrict her. It wasn’t something Eva did intentionally, at least not that Jayna could tell, but there was something distinct about the power she used, something strange and unpleasant in the way she constricted her energy upon Jayna.

“You need to stop,” Jayna said.

“Stop what?”

“Whatever you’re doing to me. Stop. It hurts.”

Eva released her and the smoke trailed away. “I’m sorry. Ever since . . .” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

It was dark—there was no moonlight and no lights in the street at all, though there was an energy in the air.

Every so often, she heard a different sound, distinct from what she felt within her, and she realized with a start that it came from explosions thundering around the street.

There was power building all around them, the kind of power that could be unleashed upon the city—the kind of power that meant something dangerous.

“We need to know more about this Ashara,” Jayna said.

“We do not.”

Jayna turned to Eva. “I understand you’re concerned about this, and you don’t want to get caught up in it, but I know something’s going on. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I feel like it involves this Ashara and whatever power they possess.”

“You know what kind of power they possess,” Eva said softly.

“Those are just stories. We don’t know what kind of power they